NHS Blood Choices App

HMA is working with NHS Blood & Transplant to deliver a Class 1 medical device to aid clinicians when prescribing blood components at a patient’s bedside

The Brief

There is the potential for an increased demand of blood components, driven by the ageing population and new therapies in cancer, transplantation and other fields of medicine which is further exacerbated by the significant number of inappropriate and unnecessary transfusions taking place.

The 2011 NHS Blood and Transplant Commercial Review identified that “More work should be done to support trusts in achieving and maintaining best practice, to reduce the inappropriate use of red cells, platelets and fresh frozen plasma; this would improve patient care and reduce costs to trusts and would in turn reduce demand and direct costs on NHSBT”.

The Solution

The development of this app is one response to the findings in the NHSBT Commercial Review and it is intended that the use of this application will support clinicians to save and improve lives by reducing exposure to unnecessary risk and ensure national recommendations (such as NICE) are followed.

By being able to reduce the inappropriate use of blood components, it will reduce wastage of the donor gift and reduce impact on blood availability as demand increases.

The Approach

Taking a co-creation approach to the development of the app, HMA has worked closely with a diverse group of healthcare professionals including junior doctors, consultant haematologists, transfusion practitioners, a quality manager and the NHS Blood and Transplant Technical Lead for the project. This group has helped shape the functionality using their experience to consider use cases and the practicalities of using the app in a clinical context.

"It is great we are working with HMA on this project to ultimately help improve the safe and appropriate treatment for patients who may need a blood transfusion. Patient Blood Management (PBM) reduces the inappropriate use of blood and blood components to improve patient outcomes."

Aman Dhesi,
Patient Blood Management – Regional Lead, at NHS Blood and Transplant